Sellect helps fashion companies to speed up their websites, provides better tracking of orders and social media integration, and includes a simple user-face to upload and manage content.

The petition was filed by Jan Cohen, the company's chief operating officer and co-founder. In an affidavit he pinned much of the blame for the company's woes on coding.

"Much of the code was 'spaghetti' code, which was patched together from bits and pieces of open-source software," Mr. Cohen wrote in the affidavit.

A year ago Sellect decided to hire additional coders to fix the site and at least retain its existing clients, but faced with a limited supply of available Ruby on Rails highly-proficient coders, Sellect brought in development company Cyrus Innovations to help fix the code.

In the end, the hiring of Cyrus put a major strain on Sellect's finances. Cyrus currently holds a claim of $135,220 from Sellect.

The annual salary for Ruby on Rails developers ranges from $120,000 to $150,000, according to Adam Robles, division director for staffing firm Robert Half Technology. That can be a hefty price for small businesses to pay, but by hiring such freelancers as needed businesses can often avoid paying an annual salary to developers.

Nonetheless, if companies like Sellect need to hire developers for even a short period on an hourly basis, they can still end up paying dearly. According to Mondo, which tracks IT salaries, the bill rate for Ruby on Rails developers can be as high as $160 per hour.

Despite its current status, Sellect remains hopeful. Mr. Cohen believes that by filing for bankruptcy his company will ultimately be in a better position to further develop its platform and increase its business. He also believes that reorganization is the best hope its employees have for continued employment.